Health Benefits Of Neem
Both neem oil and neem leaf are wonderful skin care ingredients:
- Neem relieves dry skin. It soothes itchines, redness and irritation.
- It improves general skin health and immunity, combating bacterial infections, and in acne,boils and ulcers.
But neem doesn't promote resistance in bacteria. Antibiotics are over-prescribed and are becoming blunt as a weapon in our fight against diseases. Neem is an interesting alternative, and one that will never stop working.
One of the top neem benefits is that it lets you avoid harsh chemicals and nasty insecticides when treating conditions like
Nobody wants to douse themselves in insecticides, or use corticosteroids forever... Neem can often do the same job, even better.
Used as hair oil neem promotes shiny, healthy hair, combats dryness, prevents premature graying and may even help with some form of hair loss.
Neem oil also makes a great nail oil to eliminate brittle nails and rid them of nail fungus.
The biggest benefit of neem oil and neem leaf is that they are good for your general health, the condition of your skin and body, and your immune system. So whether you use them to fight some skin condition, or just to prevent any skin related problems in the first place, you are doing good things for yourself.
Benefits Of Taking Neem Leaf
Neem leaf is an essential ingredient in many Ayurvedic remedies. Indians have known for thousands of years that taking neem has many benefits. It stimulates the immune system, improves liver funcion, detoxifies the blood, generally promotes a healthy circulative, respiratory and digestive system. It is famous as a treatment for malaria and diabetes.
In the western world people mostly drink neem tea or take neem capsules to boost immune function and for the blood cleansing effect, especially people with skin problems.
More Medicinal Benefits Of Neem
Neem is just about anti-everything:
- anti-bacterial
- anti-viral
- anti-septic
- anti-diabetic
- anti-fungal
- blood-purifying
- spermicidal
Neem also shows great promise as a natural means of birth control for male and female.
Oral care and periodontal disease is another benifit of Neem. In India the people used the twigs off the Neem tree like toothbrushes to help protect them from cavities and other oral problems. Products being produced now are such things as toothpaste, toothpowder, mouthwash and others.
The range of diseases that has been traditionally treated with neem, or where research is being done is very large.
Aids, Cancer, Malaria, Diabetes, Hepatitis, Duodenal Ulcers, Kidney disorders, Fungal infections, yeast infections, STDs, a wide variety of skin disordes, periodontal disease, mononucleosis, blood disorders, hearth diseases, nerve disorders, allergies..... and much more.
Benefits for Animals
Bathing your dog or cat with neem soap or shampoo will prevent insect infestacion and bites, ticks and fleas, ringworm, mites and many skin disorders or fungal infections.
By using products with neem on yourself and your animals, you avoid harmful chemicals and medications with side affects which increase stress on the immune system
Neem Benefits For Gardeners And Farmers
Neem insecticides and pesticides are organic and completely non-toxic to humans, other mammals, birds, bees and other insects with are beneficial.
Neem oil is pressed out of the seeds obtained from neem trees. In addition to its use as an organic insecticide spray, neem oil has been used medicinally and in the cosmetics industry. One purveyor of the product (Dyna-Gro) explains how neem oil works as an organic insecticide as follows: "It disrupts insects' hormonal balance so they die before they molt to the next life stage."
How Neem Oil Works:
According to the EPA, "Azadirachtin and Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil are derived from the natural oil found in seeds of the neem tree.... When the natural neem oil is removed from the seeds and treated with alcohol, virtually all of the azadirachtin and related substances separate from the oil itself. The remaining oil - without the azadirachtin - is called Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil. Azadirachtin acts in the following ways: It deters certain insects, such as locusts, from feeding and it interferes with the normal life cycle of insects, including feeding, molting, mating, and egg laying."
Neem Oil As Organic Insecticide: Pests Killed or Repelled:
Neem oil kills some pests (after they've eaten leaves sprayed with neem oil), while it repels others with its strong smell. Neem oil is used to control many pests, including whitefly, aphids, Japanese beetles, moth larvae, scale and spider mites. Because it kills mites -- which aren't insects but, instead, related to spiders and ticks -- neem oil is listed as a "miticide." Sprays containing clarified hydrophobic extract of neem oil are also used as fungicides against rust, black spot, mildew, leaf spot, scab, anthracnose, blight and botrytis.
Neem Oil As Organic Insecticide: How to Apply:
According to the people who sell the neem oil product that I tested ("70% Neem Oil"), "Mix 70% Neem Oil at the rate of 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) per gallon of water. Thoroughly mix solution and spray all plant surfaces (including undersides of leaves) until completely wet."
Neem Oil As Organic Insecticide: When to Apply:
When applied as a preventative, neem oil should be applied on a 7 to 14 day schedule, say the manufacturers of 70% Neem Oil. To control a pest or disease already present, they recommend an application of neem oil on a 7 day schedule.
Benefits of Neem Oil for Pest Control:
Besides being an organic insecticide, using neem oil allows you to target pests, specifically, as opposed to beneficial insects (e.g., bees and lady bugs). By definition, "pests" are the insects eating your plants, and neem oil, properly applied, kills an insect only if it ingests the sprayed foliage (bees and lady bugs don't eat plant leaves).
Neem protects your garden crops from chewing and sucking insects and from fungal diseases, and your health benefits as well.
Another neem benefit is that insects do not become resistant to it. Normal synthetic insecticides create resistant insects. So farmers need to spray more and more, and nastier and nastier chemicals to keep insects in check. When you use neem oil you don't have that problem.
Neem oil spray can also be used as a personal insect repellant. Neem keeps mosquitoes away AND it is good for your skin! On the other hand DEET, the active ingredient in chemical insect repellants, is highly toxic.
Benefits Of Neem Trees
And there are more neem benefits. Growing neem trees uses little water. Theri deep tap roots break through hard clay pans and mine the subsoil for nutrients. The nutrients are returned to the surface as a leaf little, for other plants to use.
Neem trees have the abilitie to minimize mosquito activity in problem areas due to it's natural insect repelent properties minimizing risks of malaria and dengue.
Neem trees are especially good at accumulating calcium. Growing neem trees can bring acidic soils back to neutral and so reclaim exploited soils.
Neem trees can grow in very marginal areas, and improve those soils over time.
Increasing use of neem in the western world, and increasing demand, would open up economic opportunities in third world countries. Those countries have the ideal climate for growing neem.
Neem grows quickly and makes good firewood. Excessive firewood clearing is the main reason for the spread of the desert.
And we all know that trees are carbon sinks, and that we need to contain our carbon emissions if we wantr to slow global warming, and the more trees we plant the better...
There is a reason why one of the best known books about neem is called, Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems
There is one key benefit that neem can't offer. It may be great for all of us, and great for poorer countries, but neem would not put big money into the pockets of the western pharmaceutical giants.
US companies tried to obtain patents for neem, and the patents were revoked. Without patents and monopolies there is no money in neem for the pharma giants, so they will not fund the necessary research. A cheap, safe, effective and easily available natural drug is AGAINST their interests.
Research is very expensive, but without that big scale research authorities like the US Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Authority are unable to give neem their ok.
Anybody who is selling neem is not even allowed to say any of the things that I said above.
Here's a tree that could very well solve some of the world's biggest problems, but because the pharma giants can't own it we will likely just continue on the same destructive path...
http://www.neemfoundation.org/